International Burrito

October 31, 1994
Tortillas aren't just for beans and beef anymore. Here Davis tours the world's cuisines, finding inspiration for fillings presented country by country in this slender cookbook. The raison d'etre? The chance to eat classic dishes of international origin without needing a spoon or fork: just wrap it in a tortilla, instead. Feel like eating Italian osso buco without the bother of rice, pasta or plates? Make the meaty veal stew in an hour and 15 minutes, and then spoon it into a warmed flour tortilla, sprinkle with a little lemon-parsley gremolata, and eat it out of hand. Or try lamb meatball burritos scented with cumin that one might find wafting through a Moroccan market, a rich Alsatian onion and potato burrito a la Francaise, or a moo-shu vegetable burrito. The burrito can even be fashioned as a dessert, as Davis shows in her recipes for a pear souffle burrito. Burrito-lovers will find more than 70 recipes at their disposal. Yet, the two most probable audiences for this somewhat improbable book are the legions of children who refuse to eat with cutlery-and hosts who hate to clean lots of silverware after a party.